What did the dream of covered bridges say? The protagonist, the outline of the story?
Robert james waller's original work.
Translated by Hou Pingsong
Hou ping abbreviation
The story of The Bridges of Madison County once touched millions of readers around the world, and the adaptation of the blockbuster with the same name was rated as one of the ten most influential films of that year. There is also a "covered bridge fever" in China. What did the hero and heroine experience after an unusual love story? In recent years, the writer R·J· Waller has received thousands of letters from loyal readers of Bridges of Madison County all over the world. Many people want to know more about the hero and heroine and their life after four romantic days in Madison. Waller's Bridge of Dreams immediately caused a sensation among readers after it was published in the United States this year. Foreign book reviews even think that it is more graceful and euphemistic than The Bridges of Madison County, inspiring people, especially its detailed description is full of charm and memorable. The Chinese version of The Bridges of Madison County, a sequel to The Bridges of Madison County, will be published by Translation Publishing House soon.
198 1 year1month 16 years later, 68-year-old Robert Kincaid sat in his cabin in Seattle looking at old photos, smoking camel cigarettes or stroking the golden retriever named Dalu. Cold fog and flowing water outside the window, time goes back, and the past is vivid.
He looked at Francesca Johnson in the black-and-white photo: she was leaning on the fence post of Iowa ranch, wearing an old pair of jeans and a white T-shirt and smiling at him in the warm morning light. Nothing special, just Francesca and the soft light in the morning-the woman he has always loved and the light he has been pursuing all his life. Kincaid looked at the photo he had seen thousands of times, stroked her with his hand, and traveled through time and space, hoping to get everything he 16 years ago. Who says the flame will burn out? Who says the spring will dry up? Kincaid's feelings of that year will come back as long as he thinks of her. How much love can you start over?
Kincaid took out his wallet from the left back pocket of jeans and took out a folded piece of paper. Due to hundreds of folds and readings, the handwriting is blurred and the paper is tattered. This is Francesca's "invitation" nailed to the covered bridge, like an arrow whistling in the desert, tied to the covered bridge when she woke up at dawn.
If you still want to have dinner when the moth spreads its wings,
You can come over when you're done tonight. Any time is fine.
Robert Kincaid, the last cowboy, the leopard who came into this world by comet, is ready to act. "If nothing else, just go to her once. It's better than sitting here feeling sorry for yourself, just watching the fate of leaves and butterflies brought by autumn and loudly praising things that will never happen, "he said to Jin Mao." So, he shook out his life savings: three checks for 742 dollars, 87 dollars in cash, and more than 50 dollars in change in the coffee can. The engine of this truck is new. It has only run 68,000 miles. If not, you can sleep in the truck and save some money on the way. It's hardly enough, he thought. He chose the same route as 16 years ago, drove the same pickup truck named Harry, led the same golden retriever, took the old camera equipment, the old guitar, the old suitcase, and the constant love from 16. Robert Kincaid went on his way.
His journey to find the old has begun. He is persistent and romantic as always, but he is a little bitter and helpless. He has a clear purpose and firm determination, but his heart is still full of contradictions. "I don't know what she looks like now. I wonder if she has changed a lot? " He just wants to see her, talk to her, express his feelings and thank her for making his whole life perfect in just four days. He wants to tell her that he still loves her and has always loved her. No, it's impossible, never. She has her family, and she has her responsibilities. Her children must have grown up and probably left home. In any case, he shouldn't venture to see her and disturb her and her family's life. Really, if I really see her, I really don't know what to do. How is she? What would happen if she met me? Will she forget the whole thing? No, Kincaid doesn't believe it. Francesca Johnson and he have been closely linked forever. God knows, four days will never be forgotten. If they are worth a thousand dollars in an instant, they will be rich for four whole days; Kincaid recalled while driving, and the past was like an old tree on the roadside, retreating one by one.
Francesca Johnson changed after 16, but the change was not significant. She didn't feel that her old age had arrived. Her appearance and figure surprised her neighbors and even her husband, thinking it was a blessing from heaven. But Francesca knows in her heart that people will get old when things change, which is an irresistible natural law. However, she always had an idea that she might see Robert Kincaid again, and maybe when he would come back to her. It was that thought that supported her will and made her try to keep her beautiful face and true feelings as many years ago. She wants him to recognize her and want him to need her and get her as he did many years ago. She pays attention to a reasonable diet, keeps a good attitude and walks every day-4 miles from home to the covered bridge. Her only measure is the pink skirt that Kincaid skipped in the kitchen. In the past 16 years, she took out her skirt from time to time and tried to control her weight as soon as she found it a little tight. There is an old saying in China that "a woman invites herself" is also applicable to an American woman, just like this pink skirt Francesca is wearing.
Francesca's husband richard johnson has died, and her son Michael and daughter Caroline have grown up and left their hometown. Kind, capable and decent Richard is now lying on the family cemetery in Winterset, leaving a cemetery beside him, thinking that Francesca will rest in peace beside him in the future. Later facts proved that Richard was wrong. Richard knows that Francesca has her own dreams, and she will never enter her inner world, even though she is a good wife and a loving mother, even though she works with him as his child. When Richard died, he said, "Francesca, I know you have your own dreams. I'm sorry I can't give them to you." At that moment, she buried her face in Richard's hand, feeling sorry for what she and Kincaid had done, and feeling that he would never understand what she didn't know before she met Kincaid. At that moment, Francesca regarded it as the most touching moment in her and Richard's life.
After Richard's death, Francesca had many suitors, but she always refused politely, guarding the farm land left by richard johnson and the covered bridge dream left by Robert Kincaid alone. After Richard's death, she no longer restrained the memory of Kincaid, so that Kincaid came to her mind at any time. She tried to imagine that they would meet again. She even wondered if she would behave like a little girl on a first date at this age. She wants to know whether he is as clumsy and shy as when they first met after 16. Do they still want to have sex? Or they just sit in her kitchen and reminisce about the past
165438+1One day in October, the rain stopped and the temperature dropped to 30 degrees Fahrenheit. The weather forecast says it will snow at night. At half past three in the afternoon, it's time for a walk. She put on her boots and raincoat and went out. Meanwhile, Robert Kincaid is approaching the covered bridge. Kincaid made a detour. He didn't want to meet Francesca in town, nor did he want to cross her farm Kaminouji to the covered bridge. He didn't want this nostalgic trip to embarrass both sides and make the town fleeting again. See covered bridge. He felt there was nothing wrong with coming here. In this ancient covered bridge, he felt a kind of whole body peace and tranquility, and his heart bathed in emotion became calm and peaceful. At that moment, he felt that this place would be his home forever, and one day his ashes would come here along the middle reaches. He hopes that his ashes can become a star dust on this bridge, and he will always keep the dream left on this covered bridge. Rain fell from the eaves of the bridge and tears were silent. He leaned against a bridge post and opened the floodgate of his mind, and all the feelings of the past and the present came to him together. Then he decisively closed the gate. He wanted to say goodbye to Francesca in his own way.
When Francesca walked into the covered bridge, the rain had turned into snow. Pigeons cooed in the covered bridge, the river gurgled under the covered bridge, and there was a line of footprints just stepped on the bridge deck. She also saw a metal card on the ground. Whatever it was, she picked it up and put it in her raincoat pocket. In the flying snowflakes, a strange feeling welled up in her mind. She felt someone and something hiding in the Woods on the mountain. She clearly heard the sound of the car engine starting. Just then, her suitor Floyd Clark heard that she was on the bridge and drove her home. Francesca ignored his call and ran desperately up the hill, followed by Freud. In the blinding snow, she vaguely saw a green pickup truck leave her.
After finally bidding farewell to the covered bridge, Robert Kincaid's mind was full of that woman and the ancient bridge, driving hundreds of miles and struggling on the loneliest snowy road. His life is like the loneliest highway. He remembered his childhood. His father died after graduating from high school, so he had to sign up for the army to support himself and his mother. In the army, he took learning photography as his lifelong hobby and work. His superb professionalism, unique creative inspiration and hard-working professionalism enabled him to create a large number of excellent works during his work in big-name magazines such as National Geographic and during his service in the US Marine Corps during World War II, and became a famous writer and photographer. However, his unsociable personality and untimely art for the sake of art may be the shadow of his childhood, the trauma of war, or both, or the latter is more than the former. He is "very kind and polite, but introverted", and he "shoots some strange works that don't sell well these days". "His works are exquisite and delicate, and the printed effect on newsprint is not very good, which is too abstract for the public taste". This evaluation by the photography editor is objective. Therefore, Kincaid, the last cowboy, is doomed to be desolate and lonely all his life. However, his heart is not lonely, full of love.
Robert Kincaid is a typical ranger. He is special, and so is his work. He regards himself as a rare male animal that has been eliminated by the times, and he is the last cowboy who is still throwing the lasso high. He is also very ordinary, approaching the daughter of a silk merchant, a local guide for archaeological photography, a chief mate bent on buying a schooner, an old couple in Scotland, a Catholic nun who saved him in wartime, and a nighthawk Cummings in Tacoma. While working for National Geographic magazine, he was "willing to go anywhere and stay for a long time until he finished his task". He spent his whole life chasing soft light and finally turned himself into light. At the age of 59, he also ran to the cliff of Acadia National Park to take photos. He won the lifetime achievement award for photography, but he was not keen on it, and even interested in the plagiarism of works made with life and blood in the war. His cold blue eyes can always capture something that can't be captured except the camera lens. He can wait for 24 hours in order to observe a maple leaf. Similarly, for that unforgettable love, he waited for the end of his life.
On this desolate old road, Robert Kincaid had another unexpected harvest. On his way to say goodbye to the covered bridge in Iowa, he passed a gallery in Mendocino. Through the window pane, through the distant time and space, he met a woman of deja vu. Who is she? This woman feels the same way. There is something very familiar with the man with extraordinary temperament outside the window. Who is he? After the gallery closed, the woman still felt uneasy when she got home and went out for a walk twice. Kincaid went to the gallery again on his way back from the covered bridge, with doubts. So they recognized each other at dusk. It turned out to be Winnie Macmillan, the cellist Kincaid met in Big Sur when she came back from the battlefield in September 1945. She is a beautiful girl of 19 years old. Thirty-six years later, Kincaid's sideburns have frosted, but Winnie's charm still exists. /kloc-the age gap of 0/3 years old seems to be widening now.
To Robert Kincaid's surprise, he has a son, himself and Winnie's son. On that day of that year, when Kincaid was driving a motorcycle through Big Sur, he saw Winnie and an old pianist practicing outside a small room and couldn't help but stop and listen. Kincaid hasn't fully woken up from the nightmare of war, intoxicated with the peace like a paradise. The warmth and friendliness of Winnie and her friends revived Kincaid's numb heart. The night is gentle, the waves beat against the coast, the cello plays Schubert, the picnic basket, the seaside bonfire, the warm beach and Winnie's retention. Kincaid does not deny that these are his needs, but they are not all his needs and final needs. Kincaid left his son instead of himself.
Kincaid accepted this fact immediately after being shocked, and felt deeply guilty for not helping Winnie raise her son. Winnie told Kincaid that their son Carlisle was a carpenter and was looking for his real father everywhere. Kincaid and Winnie had a long talk late at night. They are more like old friends than old lovers. Winnie offered to let her sleep on the sofa, but Kincaid declined politely, saying that he needed to go back to the hotel and think about it alone. At the moment, Robert Kincaid has mixed feelings and contradictions. He lamented: "Great love has passed away, and a son has returned." He thinks that love and son cannot be exchanged. After those turbulent years, the wounds that need to be licked after the war, looking for something richer than sex on the beach, time and space are different. Winnie and Kincaid cherish the sincere and short-lived love 36 years ago, but they can also face the reality calmly and change without hiding. Winnie told Kincaid that she knew they were not qualified to live as a family. Kincaid later replied to Carlisle, "No, Carlisle, if I say I still love her, I'm not telling the truth. We haven't been together long. " The truth is, after Francesca, Kincaid has no room for any other woman in his heart.
When Kincaid returned home to Seattle, Carlisle was waiting for him in Shawty's bar. Carlisle found that Kincaid usually went there every Tuesday night to listen to Nighthawk Cummings play saxophone. At the end of autumn leaves, Robert Kincaid smiled and walked to his son whom he had never seen before. The father and son embraced. In the next two days, although I can't adapt to the concept of son and father for the time being, their hearts have been inextricably linked with each other. Kincaid's photographic works, Carlisle's woodworking skills, father and son appreciate each other, and talk about everything. They are father and son and friends. Speaking of emotional places, Kincaid took out his handkerchief and wiped his eyes, saying, "Sorry, I seem to have to wipe my eyes often recently." Carlisle suddenly felt his eyes moist, too. Kincaid had another heart attack when he showed Carlisle his old photos. Carlisle's concern made Kincaid finally feel the warmth of his loved ones after a lonely life. Farewell to the airport, father reluctantly, son turned around step by step. I didn't expect this to be a farewell.
Robert Kincaid entrusted Carlisle to burn all his photos and letters after his death, because he didn't want to leave any traces behind him. He didn't want his photos to wander around in the commercial tide of the organized world and become commercial advertisements. He told Carlisle that his way of looking at things was: "When I die, I like to clean the ground behind me." Kincaid died three weeks after Carlisle left. He died alone in his hut, and was not discovered by his neighbors until he whined on the road. Winnie and Carlisle were very sad to hear the bad news. Carlisle went to Seattle as instructed to burn Kincaid's photos and letters. However, Robert Kincaid did not completely "sweep the ground behind him". He didn't change his will after he found his son, so his legacy was sent to Francesca Johnson by the law firm, and she was still waiting on the covered bridge. His ashes were also scattered on the covered bridge by the executive lawyer.
It was also in 198 1 year that Francesca finally found out Kincaid's address according to the clues on the dog tag she found on the covered bridge after her daughter Caroline gave birth to her second child. When she was about to leave for Seattle, she received a suicide note and relics from the law firm entrusted by Kincaid before her death. 1989, eight years after Robert Kincaid's death, Francesca Johnson also "died of natural causes"-a neighbor found her lying dead on the kitchen table. According to her will, the lawyer scattered the ashes on the covered bridge in the same place as Robert Kincaid's ashes eight years ago.